Trust in Thee
by Cat O'Hara Butler
Summary: This is a book that i wrote about a year ago and i was wanting some people to read it and tell me what they think. is it really as good as my friends and family tell me it is? Thanks! 5 reviews and i will update!


**I**

It was the year 1858, and sixteen year old Elizabeth Carter was having the time of her life. She was a southern belle, and with her beautiful nut brown hair and her shining sky blue eyes that glittered like diamonds when she was up to some mischief, every boy in four counties were awed by her beauty and grace. With her nineteen inch waist and her small feet she was a stunning picture to behold. Especially when she was sitting on the porch swing with her full skirts spread wide as she was that warm march evening.

It was growing dusky as Elizabeth sat there, the large pine tree behind her smelled so good in the soft, early evening breeze. The sunset was beautiful with its bright reds and oranges, filling the sky. Tomorrow would be beautiful and warm with no rain to come. Elizabeth sat there drinking in the sweet smell of her mother's roses and the honeysuckle that Elizabeth looked forward to every year, as it grew all around the porch. When she smelled that sweat smell she knew that winter was over and summer would soon be here. This time of day was by far her favorite because it was now that the sun was setting and it was starting to cool off, she could enjoy the sights and smells as well as the sounds of nature all around her. In the distant she could hear an early whippoorwill calling out. "Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will!" it called. The crickets and frogs were starting to come out of hiding now, as well, to make a wonderful sound much like music to Elizabeth. This was something she never wanted to change. The sound of the early evening was something she loved and held very close to her hart. To Elizabeth it was a sweet lullaby. As she sat there swinging on the porch swing she saw fireflies putting on their light show. They would blink their light then fly to another place and blink again, repeating this pattern until late into the night.

"Miz Lizbeth, you bettu come on in. De night air ain't good fo ya. Ya don want tu be getting sick for dat party you done been spending all you enjy an time plannen." Said Mammy coming out on the porch and looking at Elizabeth sitting there on the swing.

"I'll be in in a minute Mammy. Just let me rest for a little while longer." Elizabeth said with a sigh. "I never give Mother the credit she deserves for running this house so well the way she does. I didn't know how much work it was to keep everything in order and plan a ball on top of it all. Now that she's taking care of the children for their schooling and I'm running the house for the most part I realize how much of the work Mother really did from her sick bed that year after Tom was born and I thought I was doing everything around the house to keep it in smooth running order. At only thirteen you think things are bigger than they are; but now that I really am doing all the work with only occasional help from Mother I see how much work running a household is."

"Da cook ovr ta yo uncle Samul's plantation don tole me dat ever body dat be come vistin is talkin bout de party dat we be havin over here at de Pines, an how it gonna be de biggest ding dis here year. Ever bodys cited and looking forwud tu da party so you sure don want to go and get yu self sick. So you hurry up an come inside. No body wants a ailing hostes."

"Yes Mammy. I'll be in in a minute."

Elizabeth was glad for the planning job of planning this ball really; it took her mind off the fact that it seemed her father wanted her to get married, soon. Elizabeth knew that whether she liked it or not she was, one day, going to get married and have to run her own household. And that day was coming much sooner then she would have liked. It wasn't the household part that bothered her though, it was the getting married. She knew that she wanted a family of her own, she just didn't know if she wanted one now, when she was still so young, although she guessed that the visitor her father said would be coming for the ball had something to do with her. Almost anytime Elizabeth was anywhere near her father he brought up the need for her to make sure the house was ready for the guest when he got there in a week, as if it were the only thing he could think of. The house would have to be clean no matter who this man was but it was that fact that her brothers weren't to happy about the man coming either that made her even more suspicious that he had something to do with her.

Every time one of the country boys would get even a little interested in her, one of her brothers would say something to him and he would quickly become disinterested. Even though she didn't want to get married right now, what her brothers did still got on her nerves after a while. And even though she didn't like to be silly and flirt, she would still like someone to pay attention to her for more than one dance. Why, hadn't it been just the other day that she had been talking to Mammy on just this subject of not wanting to be all stupid and empty headed?

"Mammy," she had said. "Why do I have to act all giggly and stupid in front of boys? Why is it so important that they think they know everything?"

"'Cause Honey, if'n you don, you ain't nevu gonna git you a husband." Mammy had replied in her slave dialect.

"Well, what if I don't want to get married and have lots of children? Is that so terrible?"

"Honey you gots to understand dat's de way dings is. You grow up, git yourself a husband dat has a good name, an you has chillins. Dat's jest de way dings is and it'd be better if'n you understand now dat dat's what's gonna happen to you wedda you likes it or not."

"But I still don't understand why we have to act stupid all the time."

"'Cause good gentmen dink day need to know everthing an be powerful 'cause days de men, an if'n you seem like you know mo den day do, den day don feel powerful no mo."

"But what about after the wedding, when they find out that I have a brain?"

"Den days already married you an day cain't do nuffin bout it."

But then wasn't that just like life, always having to do things you don't want to do just because that was what was expected of you.

Elizabeth didn't want to get married, but she did know that she would, whether she liked it or not, so she had resolved herself to at least love the man she married.

As Elizabeth sat there thinking of all these things, she noticed it had started to grow dark and remembered that she had told Mammy that she would be inside in just a few minutes. She wondered how long she had sat there day dreaming. Surly it hadn't been too long or Mammy would have come back out and insisted she come in that instant. Just as Elizabeth was getting up to go inside and apologize for staying out longer than she had planned; she saw a small light flicker out of the corner of her left eye. She heard the crunch of dirt under a boot and wondered who could be out with a candle now. She stood very still trying to see who was there, and then she saw her older brother John, with a candle in his right hand, while shielding the flame from the late evening breeze with his left step out from the side of the house, and the shadows that had protected him from view only a short moment ago.

John was the oldest of the six Carter children and was named after his father. Unlike his younger brother Charles who looked like his father in every way, with his dark brown, almost black hair, green eyes, and standing at six feet four, John was only like his father in his name and that he was tall and broad shouldered. With dark blond hair and blue eyes, he looked nothing like his father, but more like his mother. He was six years older than Elizabeth so he and Elizabeth were never very close like she and her other older brother Charles. Charles was only two years older than Elizabeth so they had been in the nursery together as small children, and until Charles had gone to school at the age of eight, they had spent most of their time together, because their next oldest sibling, Marie, hadn't been born until Elizabeth was eight. Between Elizabeth and Marie their mother had lost two children, both boys, Nicolas, and Samuel. After Elizabeth's mother had Marie, there came two more children; Clara and Tom. Clara was two years younger than Marie, and Tom was four years younger than Clara.

"Where are you going?" Elizabeth asked John as he started to walk away having not seen her standing on the porch watching him.

John jumped, startled by her voice, his candle almost going out from the sudden movement. "No where." He answered his voice tense. "What are you doing out here at this time of night? You should be inside."

"Just resting from the day's work, outside where I can get an occasional breeze; and you are going somewhere or you wouldn't have a candle. It's not yet dark enough to need a candle; you can still see a good twenty feet in front of you. Where are you going that you need to see more than a few feet ahead?"

"I told you I wasn't going anywhere, and you know you aren't supposed to talk back to me. Now go inside where you belong."

"But I –

"Inside Elizabeth! Now!"

"Fine, since you insist on being so mean." Elizabeth mumbled as she obediently went inside.

Elizabeth had been taught since a young age that all men were superior to women and that no matter who they were, father, brother, cousin, uncle, or even just a friend; she must do as they said when they said, and never talk back. Even her mother, Ellen, obeyed John and Charles and they were her sons. Although she didn't obey them like she obeyed her husband John Sr. When Elizabeth's father was out and John Jr. was the man of the house, what he said went and she never questioned him once. The same went for when Charles was the man of the house, and both John Sr. and John Jr. were out. But when all three were away, (which wasn't very often) Ellen was in complete charge.

For the most part Elizabeth obeyed her brothers. Charles wasn't hard to obey because he was so kind and never really told her to do anything, and when he did tell her to do she didn't mind so much because those times were rare and the things he asked of her were not things she minded doing so much. But John was a different story. He was constantly telling her to do things, and unlike Charles they were never things that pleased her. She loved John as much as she did Charles but sometimes it was just very hard to do what he wanted, and this time was no exception.

Elizabeth knew John was doing something tonight and she wanted to find out what it was. Quietly Elizabeth pulled her shawl tightly around her shoulders and slipped out of the house into the gray darkness that was soon going to be as black as pitch.

John had apparently not seen Elizabeth come out of the house, and so he kept on walking into the darkness. Elizabeth, being eight years old when the next girl was born, had grown up with her two older brothers and gained a love for adventure though she would never let her Mother or Mammy know it. She loved to do things that could potentially be dangerous and scary, but they were always exciting things.

When Elizabeth and her brothers were younger they loved to play tricks on each other, so Elizabeth had learned how to move without making, a sound even in the darkness. She crept carefully, following the small light from the candle her brother was carrying. John on the other hand wasn't worried about being heard apparently because he was stepping on twigs and making a lot of noise walking through the dry leaves from last fall.

"Were could he be going?" Elizabeth thought as she tried to keep the light of the candle in view.

John was moving faster now and Elizabeth was almost running from trying to keep up with her brother without letting him know she was there.

Then the light went out. Were had John gone? She had tried so hard to keep the flame of the candle in sight. Now she couldn't see a light anywhere. Not even the blinking light of the fire flies came to her view. All Elizabeth heard were the crickets, frogs and an owl off in the distance. Her brother must have stopped moving, or he was now being careful where he stepped. She turned around thinking maybe he was going back the other way and somehow she had passed him without either of them noticing, but there was nothing there. And what was worse, was that she was in the woods off to the east of the house, and that was all she knew. She couldn't even see the stars to find her way back, and even if she could, she wouldn't know how to use them. She was lost and now regretting her decision to follow her brother out here in the middle of the night without a candle and without knowing where he was going. All she could do was to turn around and go back the way she had come. But which way was the way she had come? She had never been in these woods before; in fact she had never been in any woods before. Even in all her years of following her older brothers around like a shadow they had never taken her into the woods more than a few feet. They told here of the snakes and bears and scary things in there so she never liked venturing into the darkness for fear of running into one of the creatures that lived there. Not even with her brothers by her side had she felt completely safe. Now the memories of those stories came back to her. She knew in the back of her mind that most of them weren't true, but still they scared her. Elizabeth felt the tears coming, but she didn't want to cry. She heard a twig break off to her right, and quickly turned around to see what it was.

"John? Is that you? John, if it's you please say something. I'm sorry I followed you, I know I shouldn't have. John?" Elizabeth said tears now running down her face full force.

The sounds of birds and insects that had been comforting only a moment ago, were very eerie and frightening, now that she was alone and scared in the dark of the woods.

Then she heard the snap of a twig and the rustle of leaves again. Elizabeth closed her eyes not wanting to see what had made the noise. Then, a moment latter she felt soft fur rubbing ageist her legs and she heard a loud purring. When she looked down she saw the family cat that lived in the barn. As Elizabeth let the breath she had been holding inside whoosh out she bent down and scooped up cat into her arms and held her tight glad for the company, even if the company was only that of a cat.

What was she to do? She was all alone in the middle of the woods lost and afraid with only a cat to keep her mind off of the situation at hand. Then she heard a voice as if someone were standing right beside her.

"I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Be still and know that I am God." The voice from the darkness said.

The verses comforted her, made her feel safe. Then she remembered something her Father had said when she was a little girl.

"When you are afraid my Lizzie put your trust in God." Then he had quoted a verse that she would remember the rest of her life. "When I am afraid I will put my trust in thee." Psalm 56:3

"That's what I'll do, I'll put my trust in God, and He will get me through this." She said aloud. "Dear Father in Heaven, I know you are there and that you love me. I know I shouldn't have followed John out here and I am very sorry. Please help me get out of here and back to the house, and please forgive me and help me to not be so nosy all the time. Thank you Father. In Jesus name; amen." She prayed.

Elizabeth still didn't know which way to go but she knew that God was with her and that she would make it home. She felt as if a great weight had been magically lifted off her shoulders and the feeling of safety and peace wash over her.

The sounds that had frightened her a moment ago were again comforting and she didn't feel afraid anymore. She stood very still trying to figure out what direction was home, and having the strange feeling that she should go to the left. So that's what she did, she turned left and started walking, still carrying the barn cat in her arms.

She had only gone about fifty feet when she saw a clearing in the distance. As she walked she thanked God for getting her out of that forest and back to safety, but then as she came out of the woods and into the clearing she realized that this wasn't where her house was, these were very small rundown shacks with holes in the roof and walls, no one could live in these, they were in too much disrepair to be decent for even the slaves. Where was she?

**A/N:** This is the first chapter of a book that I wrote about a year ago. I haven't really done anything with it yet but I was wanting some help with whether it's good or not by people who don't know me. Because everyone here tells me it's great. R and R please!!!! 5 reviews before I will update. Thanks!

~Cat~


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